The UConn starting bigs, Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet, led the Huskies with their second straight game of double-doubles as the Huskies beat up on Florida A&M 93-54 at the Hartford Civic Center on Monday night.
Adrien had 16 points and 15 rebounds while Thabeet had 12 points and 12 rebounds to go along with 9 blocked shots. Stanley Robinson also had 16 points, Jerome Dyson had 15 points and Craig Austrie rounded out the Huskies in double figures with 11 points.
Jermonte Bush led Florida A&M with a game-high 18 points off the bench. Leslie Robinson added 8 points to the cause for the Rattlers.
UConn started off the game with a 15-0 run and held the Rattler scoreless until the 12 minute mark. At one point in the first half, UConn head coach Jim Calhoun was so pissed at his players, he took the five guys on the floor off the court and just sat there in the timeout. Roughly 18 seconds later after poor execution, he called another timeout and took the 5 on the floor off the court again. UConn would eventually settle down after this and head into the locker room with a 43-15 lead.
The Rattlers played a lot better in the second half but their lack of size compared to UConn’s proved to be the difference in the game.
UConn is off until Saturday when they head to Boston to take on #19 Gonzaga in The Hartford Hall of Fame Showcase at the TD Banknorth Garden. Tip is set for 3:30 PM and the game will be shown on ESPN.
Notes and Observations:
The1 starters were A.J. Price, Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson, Hasheem Thabeet and Jeff Adrien.
Thabeet had gone two games without a blocked shot and had only 7 of them on the year. He had 7 in the first half and finished with 9 of them in the game.
Dyson finished the game with a career-high 9 assists.
UConn blocked 15 shots in all in the game.
The Huskies held Florida A&M to 17.6% (6 of 34) shooting in the first half. The Rattlers shot much better in the second half (16 of 36, 44.4%). UConn shot 52.8% (32-58) in the game.
UConn shot 45% (9 of 20) from the charity stripe. You know Calhoun wasn’t pleased about this at all.
Adrien had 12 points and 10 rebounds in the second half.
UConn outscored the Rattlers 48-24 in the paint.
